Underground Art
I had a letter published in The Times yesterday, under this heading.
I’ve been thinking for a long time about the way large bronze sculptures and statues keep getting nicked by Philistines and criminals, who don’t care one jot about our artistic heritage. We also have the controversy over Tower Hamlet’s Henry Moore statue, that they may have to sell.
So when The Times published a piece on art on the Moscow Metro, I wrote to the paper. This is what I said.
Your report “Moscow’s Metro is transformed into a real work of art” (Nov 7) offers a solution to the problem of what to do with the Henry Moore sculpture owned by Tower Hamlets council, as well as other statues owned by local authorities.
Many of our stations have a suitable space, and given that they are pretty secure why don’t we move some artworks there? Statues would interest more people in a station than they do tucked away in a park or housing estate, as they are now.
The more I think about this, the more I think the idea could be a runner.
Tower Hamlets incidentally, has three major stations; Canary Wharf, Shoreditch High Street and Whitechapel. The latter is currently being rebuilt for Crossrail.
All it needs to find a space for the Henry Moore, is a bit of creative and artistic thinking! To site the statue in public in a station, may actually cost less in the long term, as surely insurance would not be so expensive.
Welcome To Kings Cross
I started my trip to Blackpool, yesterday by going to St. Pancras station for breakfast at Carluccio’s, as because of its location it opens early at 7:30 am on every day except Sunday, when it is ninety minutes later.
So to catch the 10:30 train out of Euston to go north for Preston and Blackpool, it is convenient pit stop, as there is nothing but gluten-rich food at Euston. And also at Kings Cross, there is Leon, so journeys to the north for me, nearly always go through the station.
But it was very heartening to be greeted at the gate of the Underground by “Come on the Tractor Boys!” from one of the station staff. So it wasn’t busy, but one of the things that marks out the London Underground above most systems in the rest of the world, is the help, guidance and jokes from station staff.
It all makes the system go round easily!
Off To Blackpool Today
I’m going for the day to see my football team; Ipswich Town play there.
I’m dreading part of it. Breakfast at Carluccio’s in St. Pancras will be it’s usual good standard and the Virgin trains to Preston will probably be excellent, but the local train to Blackpool will be it’s usual crap self. Then it will be a walk in pouring rain to the ground, as only locals can fathom how to use, the town’s Third World bus system. But that is probably an insult to places like Goa, where I explored the area on the buses with a titled blonde widow. I think she was rather disappointed, in that she didn’t get her bottom pinched. But then the people of the sub-continent, are generally very polite and courteous.
At least though, the rain will wash the pavements of Blackpool of the vomit, that they seem to be paved with.
The football will probably be terrible because of the rain.
It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it.
Following Cycling Superhighway 2
I came home from Stratford by following the Cycling Superhighway 2 (CS2)
For the first part of the journey I walked and then I hopped onto a 25 bus.
The first part to the notorious Bow roundabout is very good, but between the roundabout and Whitechapel needs a lot of improvement to make it up to the same standard.
Will car drivers and other road users accept the narrowing of the carriageway and will pedestrians and the numerous Asian businesses along the road feel aggrieved at the reduction in pavement space?
I feel though, that the cycling superhighway should be built to a high standard and separated from other road users.
Only time will tell if what eventually happens is a good decision for all those, who use the area.
But we’ve had too many deaths and serious injuries amongst cyclists.
On a [personal note, if I had a nice cycling superhighway running towards the City, say down the Kingsland Road, it might encourage me to get on my bike. That would be something, that would improve my health.
The Hackney Eight Have Got Tail-Gunners Again
I got the 38 bus back from the Angel this morning, travelling on one of the Hackney Eight.
They’ve now got tail-gunners for the next four weeks as an experiment, according to the driver.
What we really need on the 38, is reinforcements for the loyal eight New Buses for London, we have!
Why shouldn’t the residents of Hackney, Clapton and Islington, not be able to travel First Class?
Two Stories From Liverpool
I don’t go into betting shops these days, except in a High Street, when I need to use the toilet, as most good betting shops, have ones that are clean and well-kept.
So when I see that Liverpool is thinking of banning fixed-odds betting machines in shops as reported in the Liverpool Post, it won’t affect me. But I do think, that allowing these money grabbers into shops, was a very backward step for life in general.
The other story is very progressive and the BBC is reporting that Merseyrail will allow contactless payments all over its network.
This should happen everywhere and on buses too!
Venice Limits Cruise Ships
I love Venice and so did my late wife, C. We must have gone about five or six times and it was no surprise, that the first place abroad I visited after her death, was Venice, to see if I could holiday alone. This post contains a lot of how I feel about Venice.
So Venice to me is special and I’ll probably go again this winter. The winter to me is the best time to visit, as there are less tourists and day-trippers gumming up the city. I always stay in the same hotel close to St. Mark’s Square and even next week, prices are high. So I suspect that even in the winter now, it’s getting lots of visitors.
So to see that the city is to limit the number of cruise ships that visit, as reported on the BBC, is to me a very good thing.
Looking at prices and knowing the city as I do, I would recommend that if you want to visit Venice, you book the best hotel you can afford close to St. Mark’s Square, fly into the Marco Polo airport and then take the ferry to the centre. It looks like nights at the beginning of the week are best and as Venice is a city which is on the go all the time, Monday to Wednesday, aren’t the disasters some cities are. But go out of the city the back way, using the train to a contrasting city like Milan, Bologna or Verona and fly back from there. Remember, every sizeable city in Italy is worth visiting and there are very few, where you can’t enjoy yourself sightseeing, eating and drinking for a couple of days.
We must find better ways of visiting Venice, otherwise the city that I love, will be ruined by tourism.
A Vending Machine With Healthy Foods
I saw this vending machine at Dalston Junction station today.
A Vending Machine With Healthy Foods
How refreshing to see foods I can eat on sale on the platform. Note the EatNakd bars. This was just what I needed at Ulm, when I was kept alive by some awful paprika flavoured crisps.
As I haven’t noticed it before, I must assume it has probably just arrived. I couldn’t find the company on the Internet and I’d be interested to know more or hear of other locations.
Lea Bridge Station
Lea Bridge Station is going to be reopened at the end of next year. As I was passing, I took a few pictures of the station as it is today.
It would appear that a certain amount of clearing up has been done.
What surprised me was the landscaping around the line at this point.
It is also close to a couple of attractions in the Lea Valley Park, is well seved by buses and there were quite a few pedestrians and cyclists about. I had actually been to the nearby Lea Valley Riding Centre, to see about getting back on a horse.
So I am not be surprised that the figures showed the station is a good one to reopen. Although this article says that it might close.
I have a feeling that the figures will be nowhere like they are predicted. But whether they are higher or lower, I will not guess.
A lot depends on the service levels through the station, which currently sees two trains every hour in each direction. If that were to be doubled, it would make a lot of difference.
There is a good article and discussion on Lea Bridge station here on London Reconnections.
On a personal basis, I might use the station to go north, as it is one 56 bus to the station. So if I was going to Broxbourne or one of the other stations up the Lea Valley line, it would be a simple alternative. Especially, if the trains were four an hour.
Could We Create A Second Entrance To The Overground At Highbury And Islington Station?
Highbury and Islington station is not one of my favourites.
It has only two escalators to get to the deep-level platforms for the Victoria line and the Northern City line. At least we have now got two fully working examples, but a much needed third escalator can’t be fitted in the empty position, as there is not enough circulation space at the bottom.
It’s all because it was a typical 1960s Jerry-built station like several on the Victoria line.
One of the problems is that although since the Overground was opened at Highbury and Islington, there is more space on the concourse, at certain times, like an evening match at The Emirates, every passageway and the space in front of the station, gets seriously overloaded.
Although the Overground was built to a price, they did save money by using good design, rather than just leaving something out, as they did on the Victoria line.
For this reason, although they could have reinstated the Eastern Curve at Dalston Junction, to enable trains to go directly between Stratford and the East London line, they chose not to, but instead made Canonbury station, into a good, easy and efficient interchange. Especially, if you were coming from Stratford and going south to or through Dalston Junction! I regularly if I’m coming home from Stratford, change at Canonbury to a southbound train and go to the first stop; Dalston Junction, from where I take one of the numerous buses home. It sounds complicated, but if I have a heavy parcel, there is only one set of steps, which can be bypassed by a lift.
To facilitate train changing at Highbury and Islington station, they also built a second footbridge over the tracks, at the western end of the platforms. This footbridge is also designed to serve an emergency exit from the station.
This footbridge and its associated emergency exit, opens on to the road alongside the station;Highbury Station Road. So could this exit be expanded into a full entrance and exit to the station? I took a walk around the station to see it all from the outside.
The residential developments around the north side of the station, probably wouldn’t take too kindly, to large numbers of people and especially football fans passing down their road. But it is only a short walk up Highbury Station Road on the south side to the wide expanses of Liverpool Road, which is in fact, an area poorly served by buses.
So a second entrance is probably feasible and it might give benefits to those, who live in the area to the west of the station. As Liverpool Road leads to the Emirates Stadium, a second entrance might help with congestion on the Holloway Road on match days.
Admittedly, a second entrance here would really only serve the Overground, but bear in mind that over the next couple of years, the capacity of trains on that set of lines, will be increased by twenty-five percent. This will put more pressure on Highbury and Islington station, which is a terminus of the Overground and the main northern interchange to the Underground.
I suspect too, that more football supporters will be using the Overground to get to the stadium. Remember that football fans have different travel patterns to say commuters and usually have a window of an hour or so before the match, when they can turn up. So they’ll see the extra capacity on the Overground and perhaps take a few minutes longer to get to the stadium in comfort, rather than crammed into an Underground train.
A second entrance would have certainly helped on Saturday, with all the chaos in the Balls Pond Road. If of course, the Overground had been running.
The Anonymous Widower 